Community Policing According to the U.S. Department

Community Policing

According to the U.S. Department of Justice is a "philosophy that promotes organizational strategies, which support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques, to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime" (cited in www.cops.usdog.gov). From the community's perspective, it means that the policy and organizations within the community form partnerships to increase the effectiveness of law enforcement. The gist is to provide opportunities for more dialog and communication so the community will trust the police, the police will trust the community, and there will be more opportunities to liaison between individuals and police (Miller, 2007).

Over the last four decades the philosophy of policing has undergone a dramatic change, especially in the United States. Ever since 1968 and the Kent State and Chicago Democratic Convention, the idea of use of force, public accountability, and civil rights has entered into the entire philosophical rubric of policing. The Rodney King issues, the Seattle Police Department's overuse of force, and other events place rights-based policing and community involvement at the center of both political and public attention. In fact, rights-based policing has been endorsed by Amnesty International, the Red Cross, and several agencies in the United Nations as a way to allow the community to have some degree of oversight on the over-extension of police authority -- a way to put human rights at the forefront of police philosophy (Williamson 2008).

In contemporary society, a police office is a bonded and warranted employee of a law enforcement organization, be it a local, regional, or state police force; a federal law agency, or a more specific correctional facility or other law enforcement organization. The specific reason society has law enforcement is that groups of people living together do not always exist in harmony, and it is the job of the police officer to maintain public order, prevent and detect criminal activity, apprehend criminals, collect evidence, and see that the due process of law is followed within their given duty range. Under the Western democracies, the major role of the police force is to keep order and discourage crime. Their organization is also asked to assist with emergency and disaster services, emergency medical situations, and to assist citizens in need. The duties of a police officer vary so dramatically, that the safety and internal culture of a police force differs from organization to organization (e.g. A Police Office in a large metropolitan area like New York will have different duties and dangers than a County Sheriff in a rural Oklahoma area) (Barlow 2000).

POP, or "Problem-Oriented Policing," is a theory in which small pieces of police work (e.g. similar incidents, etc.) are examined in detail so that resources and preventative measures can be used more effectively (Goldstein, 2001). This seems to be the wave of the future; much as it is in medicine and other fields -- preventative measures that save money, increase efficiency, and allow for limited resources to be structured for maximum value.